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Marie Antoinette
by Niki Shah, Managing Editor
Marie Antoinette,
the long awaited third film by Sofia Coppola, finally arrived on
October 20, 2006. The film follows the young Marie Antoinette
(Kirsten Dunst) from her departure from her home in Austria to her
new home in Versailles, France, as the wife of Louis XIV (Jason
Schwartzman), the future king of France. As she makes the transition
from her open, relaxed, life in Austria, she must now learn all of
the etiquette of the French court. She must learn to eat properly,
dress properly, sit properly, and more importantly, how to properly
address each of the twenty or so people who dress her. Most
importantly, however, Marie Antoinette must produce an heir to the
French throne, simultaneously protecting her place in it, a task she
is unable to fulfill, which provides many of the laughs during this
movie. The movie follows, more than the queen Marie Antoinette we
all read about, the person Marie Antoinette.
The most amazing aspects of this production were,
without a doubt, the sets and the costumes. The costumes which the
cast wore, even the extras, in the film were amazingly flamboyant
and colorful, which accurately portrays its title character and
makes this movie fun to watch. The crew for this movie was granted
permission by the French government to actually film this movie on
location, at the actual palace of Versailles (where King Louis XIV
and Queen Marie Antoinette actually lived in the 18th century), and
almost half of the experience of going to this movie is seeing the
set. Every scene allows the audience a different glimpse of the
beautiful palace and its grounds, and even if this movie had been an
utter catastrophe (much like director Sofia Coppola's first role),
paying eight dollars to see this movie would have been completely
worth it.
Fortunately, Sofia Coppola's directing is much, much,
better than her acting (Godfather III anyone?), and this film was
wonderfully shot, acted, and sequenced. The actors, Kirsten Dunst
and Jason Schwartzman, did excellent jobs portraying their
characters, the young reigning couple of France, and small roles by
Molly Shannon and Shirley Henderson were pleasant surprises as well.
One negative aspect, however, of the acting was fluctuating accents.
Everyone knows this story takes place in France, yet almost all of
the characters have blatant, American accents, and a royal couple
with American accents is just not a convincing royal couple in that
aspect.
The script, also, could have been much better written.
With a story as fun and interesting as Marie Antoinette's, the
simple dialogues of this film were just not enough, and as a viewer,
I found some of them tedious.
If you can, however, get past the bad accents and the
slightly mediocre script, this movie is well worth watching, since
the acting, directing, and sets carry this film over very well. This
is definitely a movie to check out eventually, and have fun
with.
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